Pre-marital sex prevalent among male adolescents, study shows

A study observed high rate of pre-marital sex among the male adolescents in the country while married men reported high level of both pre and extra-marital sex, reports UNB.

Very few women, married or unmarried, admitted pre-marital sexual experience. Regarding extra-marital sex, they liked to refer to the experience of their friends and relatives.

For men, the most common type of partner for extra-marital sexual relationship is a commercial sex worker, irrespective of social and economic status, revealed the study.

The study was a collaborative effort between the Bangladesh chapter of Population Council, a New York-based research organisation on worldwide reproductive health, and Research Evaluation Association for Development (READ).

However, there is a geographical difference, with pre-marital sex being at higher intensity in urban and extra-marital sex in rural areas.

During intensive interviewing for the study, 27 per cent of unmarried adolescent males admitted experience of intercourse, while the percentage of married men who admitted pre-marital sex was 51.

A substantial minority of married adolescent women in both urban and rural areas had prior relationship or contact with their future husbands. It was 2 to 6 per cent with other men.

The pre-marital relationship or contact with future husbands included 28 per cent in housing estates and 25 per cent in slums in urban areas, while 16 per cent for rural well-off and 10 per cent rural poor.

The contact was overwhelmingly described as only "mental intimacy" or social and romantic interactions (94 per cent). Of them, only three per cent admitted any kind of physical intimacy.

One in six men (18 per cent) married for five or more years acknowledged extra-marital sex.

Of those who had sex with partners outside of marriage, 71 per cent mentioned commercial sex workers, 40 per cent girl friends and 15 per cent other types of partners.

The study found that the women marry at very young ages compared with their husbands, and if they do not do so by their late teens, they are much more likely to have sex with a man.

Twenty-four per cent unmarried women (age 19 plus) admitted pre-marital sexual experience. It included 47 per cent in urban areas and five per cent in villages.

However, the percentage is higher (61 per cent) for unmarried males in the same (19 plus) age group. It includes 88 per cent in urban and 44 per cent in rural areas.

Regarding married women for the group, 29 per cent admitted pre-marital sex - the percentage being 40 in the urban areas. In the case of married men, 69 per cent had pre-marital sex (93 per cent in urban and 58 per cent in rural areas).

The "Study of Adolescents Dynamics of Perception, Attitude, Knowledge and Use of Reproductive Health Care" was carried out by Dr Syed Jahangir Haider, Shamsun Nehar Saleh, Nahid Kamal and Alan Gray.